Andrew Jaspan, the co-founder and editor of the Conversation, is on enforced leave after complaints from senior staff about his management style and the global direction of the group.
The chairman of the Conversation, Robert Johansen, confirmed the board was working on a new management structure and an announcement would be made soon.
He declined to comment on the tension between Jaspan and staff but said the not-for-profit media group had grown rapidly through Jaspan’s entrepreneurship and needed to be reorganised.
“The organisation has grown incredibly quickly,” Johansen told Guardian Australia. “There are a lot of issues as a result of its success and it’s now a very large complicated, international organisation.”
The Conversation now operates in five markets – Australia, Africa, the US, the UK and France – and employs more than 100 people.
Founded in 2011, the Conversation works with the university sector to publish the commentary of scientists, scholars and researchers with a view to better understanding the world and its ideas. The articles can be accessed for free and republished by other media sites at no cost.
Guardian Australia understands Jaspan was asked last month by the Australian board of the Conversation to take leave after it received more than one letter of concern from the Australian and the global editors.
Jaspan does have the support of several board members and his role in setting up and attracting funding for the successful website is widely respected, sources say.
But, in a letter to Johansen, the Australian executive team described their unhappiness at Jaspan’s ongoing involvement in the website. Johansen, the chairman of Bendigo and Adelaide Bank, has been chairman of the board since 2012.
Some of the tension appears to have arisen from a new project spearheaded by Jaspan, the establishment of a sixth website, Global, funded by the US Carnegie Foundation. He is also editor-in-chief of Global, which is now in pilot stage, as well as the other five websites.
One proposal being discussed is for Jaspan to retain the title of editor-in-chief, concentrating on expanding the Conversation in other markets, but relinquish control of the Australian operation. But some staff are said to be unhappy about this possibility.
Jaspan was on the verge of a trip to the US when he was sent on leave and the trip was cancelled.
He co-founded the Conversation after editing Fairfax Media’s the Age between 2004 and 2008. He has also edited the Observer in London and the Scotsman and Scotland on Sunday.
The Melbourne-based editor has not returned calls from Guardian Australia.
The enforced leave request came the month after the former vice-chancellor of Canberra University, Prof Stephen Parker, joined the Conversation. As director of strategy, development and global, Parker is responsible for the growth strategy for the Conversation’s expanding global network.
“I’ve followed closely the development and growth of the Conversation since its inception,” Parker said when he was appointed. “It is poised now to become the main global platform whereby the amazing research and expertise at our universities is made available to a thinking public.”
Jaspan has been a controversial figure in Australia. In 2008 he was sacked by the Age after a newsroom revolt in which 235 journalists passed a motion saying he undermined their ability to report without fear or favour.
The British editor was the most senior scalp in a cost-cutting round implemented by the then Fairfax chief executive for Victoria, Don Churchill, who said the company needed “fresh editorial” leadership.
But Churchill did praise Jaspan’s “magnificent job in reinvigorating the Age”.
Working under the slogan “academic rigour, journalistic flair”, the Conversation employs professional editors to work with academics. It is funded by government, universities and the private sector.
After the federal government stopped its $1m annual injection of funding for the Conversation, the Victorian government stepped in last year with $1m a year for three years.
The chief operating officer, Lisa Watts, who is in charge in Jaspan’s absence, has been approached for comment.
